CULTURE FUNDING WATCH X RAMBOURG FOUNDATION
International
Virtual Conference
COVID-19 crisis & Emergency Funding Mechanisms :
What action plan for the Cultural and Creative sector ?
Under this once-in-a-century pandemic hitting
the world economy, saddled with record levels
of debt and followed by official government
measures for enforced closure, hundreds
of concerts, festivals and events have been
cancelled and postponed in Tunisia and all
around the world. Artists as independent
workers, arts organizations dependent on
gathering groups together, creative people
engaged in travel and exchange, art technicians
as the industry’s invisible hands and the
whole ecosystem may be especially affected.
The sudden implosion of the cultural and
creative sector has confronted us with a
brutal reality and an urgent call for an industry
emergency support, in order to help the most
vulnerable creatives, workers and organisations
stay afloat during the COVID-19 crisis.   Then, in the second part, attendees were
In the past few weeks, emergency relief funds
and other campaigns or online petitions to
raise awareness on the massive impacts of the
Corona virus on the arts and cultural sector have
been created aiming to provide support and
temporary financial assistance to members who
are in need to help the culture sector withstand
the crisis - yet it does not even begin to
answer, in concrete terms, the many questions
concerning the modalities, coordination and
organization of such emergency mechanisms.
March 20, 2020
On March 20th, Culture Funding Watch in
partnership with Rambourg Foundation have
joined with various parties of the Creative and
Cultural sector around the world to gather their
knowledge and experiences of best practices
in the field, to debate and carry out an inquiry
by putting into profit the technological and
digital assets we have to communicate and
connect in this time of physical disconnection,
through an international virtual conference.
In the first part of the conference, a plenary
session was conducted where speakers and
participants shared informations on impact
assessment, from personal experiences
to what is available on the market.
split into 3 workshops, based on their choice
to discuss the different past experiences
and current initiatives being taken from
the public and governmental institutions
(W1), the community of cultural and
artistic practitioners (W2) to the private
institutions and foundations (W3).
CULTURE FUNDING WATCH X RAMBOURG FOUNDATION
International
Virtual Conference
COVID-19 crisis & Emergency Funding Mechanisms :
What action plan for the Cultural and Creative sector ?
Plenary
The plenary session was opened by Ouafa
Belgacem, CEO and founder of Culture Funding
Watch and later co-moderated with Shiran Ben
Abderrazak, CEO of Rambourg Foundation.
O. Belgacem opened the international video conference
with a depiction of today’s critical situation as she
says “it’s an emergency that requires emergency
actions. While some of us are used to work in such
hard contexts, this crisis is unique in the sense that
it is hitting us all at the same time with, quite similar
impact but at different scales.” She adds “For the first
time in our generation lifetime, a crisis is affecting us all
collectively and individually with no distinction of
social class, sector or geographical location.”  Following this intervention, Toni Attard, founder and
She then began the plenary session with a presentation
of its core purpose, “our main objective is not to
come with final announcements and solutions, but
instead to know who is working on what, and to try in
place of duplicating, completing each other in a more
efficient way by sharing strategies and experiences in
collecting data for needs assessment purposes and
evidence based advocacy.” Major questions that were
the very essence of what this conference was about
have also been brought up clearly, as an expression of
common questioning: Do we have an estimation of the
financial impact on our sector? Can it be measured? 
Should the funding beneficiary list be the result of a
selection and if so, under what conditions? How can
priority be assessed and how can we optimize funding
distribution in order to save the maximum of actors?
Next, Ahmed Amine Azouzi, Minister’s counsellor
for Cultural Affairs gave an overview of issues and
quantitative impacts regarding the current situation
in Tunisia: “20 cinemas, 57 art galleries, 40 theatres
and more than 700 cultural and creative activities
were closed, cancelled or postponed including major
music festivals and fairs, in a country of 11M people.”
As a major public institution and the sector’s regulator,
the awareness of such unprecedented impact is felt
and considered, knowing that this emergent sector is
mainly made of small and medium sized enterprises,
making the situation even harder to sustain. As a
possible line of approach, the Ministry had proposed
the conversion of cultural manifestations into numeric
March 20, 2020
platforms when possible, with an attention brought
to various technological assets and possible network
connections. Gabès Film Festival has for instance started
its campaign for the projection of its film festival online,
“at home”, in partnership with the VOG platform artify.
The ministry’s office is reacting as fast as it can in order
to assess and launch initiatives to limit the disastrous
impact. An overall hypothetical evaluation of the financial
streams which will be injected in the cultural and
creative economy if the lockdown lasted for 2months
has been conducted, on which talks with the ministry
of finance will be based, to ensure that the government
will set up measures to support the sector. A list of
emergency measures, to be announced publicly, will be
activated in the meantime and as fast as possible.
director of Venture Culture Malta gave a clear and
consistent presentation of an impact study on the effects
of the pandemic on the CCI in his country, but first
starts with a depiction of the health calamity’s impact
and a presentation of our role in this time of crisis: “
as the frontliners of the health sector continue doing
their utmost to address the emergency situation, it’s
in our duty as policymakers, culture leaders or culture
practitioners to support the frontliners of our sector,
the artists. While health workers are helping people
stay alive, the artists are helping people stay safe and
sane at the time of global physical distancing.”
One other way for artists to address the pandemic is,
for Milena Dragicevic Sesic, professor at the Faculty of
Dramatic Arts in Serbia, to continue entertaining our
communities and thinking of other ways of reaching
them, but also other ways of producing content that
is adaptable to our technological platforms. That way,
we might approach this crisis differently. Her students
that were supposed to have an International Theater
student festival ended up organizing it online via
live streaming performances and panel debates.
On top of that, she adds that most of compendium of
European cultural policies and practices have launched
research and investigation of what is happening as
public policies but also as solidarity and bottom-up
practices in the field, to help artists especially performing
artists who are living on contracts in this situation.
CULTURE FUNDING WATCH X RAMBOURG FOUNDATION
International
Virtual Conference
COVID-19 crisis & Emergency Funding Mechanisms :
What action plan for the Cultural and Creative sector ?
Workshop 1
Initiatives to take from an institutional perspective
One of the major roles of public institutions is arts
advocacy by ensuring that people, particularly those
who are most vulnerable in the sector, are able to
have their voices heard on issues that are important
to them and having their views genuinely considered
when decisions are being made about their lives.
Thus, funding is crucial as a practical answer for
advocacy, reinforcing the creation of a supportive
environment. Here are some emergency funding
mechanisms presented by country or regions.
Caroline Vincent : Nashville Office of Arts + Culture
(USA), highlighted the role of the city council in
supporting the sector being in the case of Nashville
double hit by a hurricane as well as by the COVID-19.
She brought their experience in coordinating with the
art and culture community to mobilise resources and
prepare a response. Caroline also highlighted how often
we are unprepared to face such large scale crisis.
Unlike other countries, the US National Endowment for
the Arts represented by Ouida Maedel does not dispose
of a comfortable budget. Thus, Relief stimulus packages
in Arts sector represent an opportunity to provide
financial support, like it was the case during the 9/11
and 2008 financial crisis. Another financial alternative
would be “crowdfunding” along with a prerequisite
of short- and long-term planning. With regards to the
estimation of the financial impact of the pandemic,
numerous organizations are sharing information on data
collection mechanisms focusing primarily on surveys.
On the other hand, and in order to deal with the current
situation, the cultural sector at UNESCO represented by
Saori Matilda Machimura set up a task force to comply
with the Convention on the Protection and Promotion
of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions to protect and
promote the diversity of cultural expressions worldwide
by ensuring that artists, universities and institutions are
supported, monitoring the sectors and producing data.
As for the measures taken in the French institutions
for the cultural and creative sector, Didier Zyserman
representative of the French Institute in Tunisia, states
that they primarily come from the Ministry of Culture,
such as compensations for the Culture and Arts industry
March 20, 2020
following the cancellations of events and donations of 22
million euros dedicated to fragile cultural organizations to
mitigate the risk of their losses. However, all stakeholders
must be involved to overcome this crisis by setting up
and developing an emergency plan in all structures and
take the right decisions as quickly as possible. 
In Tunisia, Ouafa Belgacem CEO and founder of
Culture Funding Watch affirms that, however, in
emergency responses, institutions do not respond
to the civil and the community of practice’s call
for support at the same speed as in normal times,
because of the on-going pressure it is receiving from
healthcare institutions, now a priority. Transparency
and good managerial system appear to be crucial in
such a framework. Unfortunately, the Arts & Culture
sector is unfamiliar with emergency responses
compared to other sectors which are well organized
with somehow effective coordination mechanisms.
She also underlined the necessity to learn from fast
processes as emergency mechanism response in
humanitarian crises, that are clear and standardized
from international institutions, not to forget the
importance of open resources and valuable platforms
to learn from such as bond.org platform.
To conclude, we may ask ourselves what are the
lessons learnt on strategies to face COVID-19?
What is happening now is an overlapping situation
where all actors are trying to do the same thing.
Sharing roles and responsibilities among the civil
society, foundations, public and private institutions,
community of practices is a must to perceive the
emergency mechanism’s rapid action plan, limits
and added value by responding from a double
viewpoint: From “what”  and “whose” perspective
is each added value most effective and efficient?
CULTURE FUNDING WATCH X RAMBOURG FOUNDATION
International
Virtual Conference
COVID-19 crisis & Emergency Funding Mechanisms :
What action plan for the Cultural and Creative sector ?
Workshop 2
Initiatives to take from the artistic and cultural
community of practice perspective
The second workshop, moderated by Toni Attard founder
and director of Venture Culture Malta, was about
sharing creative solutions and initiatives emerging from
the cultural actors and artistic community, to help the
cultural and artistic scene who has sustained a financial
loss stay afloat during the COVID-19 health crisis.
Quite a few speakers were at the head of fundraising
programs, amongst them, Morgan Brophy, administrator
of « Artist Relief Tree » an online fundraising platform
open for artists from all over the world “first-come,
first-served”, that makes need-based financial grants
of 250$ available to artists in need of assistance,
especially freelancers and vulnerable actors. Also,
Julie Trébault, director of PEN America’s Artists-at-
Risk Connection project, works on helping artists by
connecting them with organizations willing to support.
She highlights one of the many challenging fundraising
aspects she has been facing with the community
behind ART, the selection of beneficiary and distribution
criteria for grants in order to answer as many requests
as possible. But, as resources are multiplying, the
call to action is becoming less cumbersome. Several
initiatives, as for instance the COVID-19 Freelance
Artist Resource shared by J. Trébault presents a list
of free resources, opportunities and financial relief
options available to American artists of all disciplines.
As for Raneen Bukhari, curator and cultural producer from
Saudi Arabia, the initiatives she has been working on
come from a personal perspective, as she finds ways and
means by putting into profit her reach on social media
platforms, to contribute to her community of artists in the
Middle East. There is at present a remarkable flowering
of the Saudi art scene, as the kingdom opens its doors to
music festivals, film festivals and other cultural events.
Therefore, many artists have left their jobs to join what
used to be their hobbies, and now are constrained by
the financial and social turmoil. Considering herself
privileged to have monthly income, she started small
personal initiatives which essentially aims to give direct
funds or by giving them funds or work opportunities by
networking and connecting people. Raneen’s initiative
is still at a very early stage, however she has already
March 20, 2020
acheived an important impact : her network is growing,
some artists got financial support and major community
relief funds in Saudi Arabia have come into view, and
one can cite as an example the relief fund for filmmakers
that compensates artists who were financially damaged
as a result from the postponed Red Sea Film Festival.
During the second part, J. Trébault bounced back
on the genesis of Artist-at-Risk Connection project.
As a non-profit organization, PEN America has two
main missions « celebrating littérature and helping
writers, and celebrating and defending freedom of
expression. » Through their experience and expertise
of helping persecuted writers, they’ve realized that
artists and creative thinkers in general don’t have
the needed protection mechanisms when they are
facing risks. Thus, the Artist-at-Risk Connection
project was developped to help threatened artists
provide emergency solutions by offering them a
database of useful resources and connecting them
with organizations that can help immediately.
Julie mentioned that since the lockdown, they have
received a big number of help requests from artists
who have lost their income. About the financial support
she added that « at PEN, we have an emergency fund
for professional writers that exists from two decades
(2000$ in the US) […] now this fund is open not only
for writers but also for creative thinkers. » The latter is
still US based, but they are working on the possibility
to make it international as soon as possible.
Participants from different worldwide regions shared
a lot of similar experiences. Additional subjects
and important questions were raised such as the
importance of volunteering, the digitalization and free
resources sharing, the virtual experience and its limits,
the panic online solutions, the dilemma between the
emergency and the need of time taking to understand
the situation and to propose sustainable initiatives.
Above all, fantastic examples of artists, creative thinkers
and active organizations were present, reflecting
on this situation on small or large scale, locally and
globally, supporting and inspiring each other.
CULTURE FUNDING WATCH X RAMBOURG FOUNDATION
International
Virtual Conference
COVID-19 crisis & Emergency Funding Mechanisms :
What action plan for the Cultural and Creative sector ?
Workshop 3
Initiatives to take from the private sector
and foundations
Like in almost every area, postponements and
cancellations are subject of necessity and apply to every
business. Shiran Ben Abderrazak, CEO of Rambourg
Foundation and moderator of the session, opened the talk
with a brief description of its core activities then quickly
highlighted the importance of resources re-allocation in
such situation, later stressed by Shelagh Wright, where
she underlines the opportunity of this shift to the sector.
Sustainability of actors and projects in the Cultural and
Creative industry must always be considered as a priority
issue. Thus, the RF Grants’ program have been modified to
best address the current needs of artists whose creative
practices and incomes are being adversely impacted
by COVID-19 and are currently reallocated to be part of
the ministry’s relief fund “ Fonds Relance Culture” in
collaboration with other foundations and organizations.
Nevertheless, he adds that guarantee of shift efficiency
can only be given to countries where funds programs and
mechanisms already exist and have been implemented
long before the crisis, allowing them to have a direct
assessment of the needs and the right tools for the
beneficiary selection and funds distribution.
Heba Hage-Felder, Lebanese Senior Program Manager
at Arab Fund for Arts & Culture and Arundhati Ghosh,
Executive Director at India Foundation for Art, both
underlined the impact of on-going political, social and
financial crisis through some regions long before the
pandemic hit. These regions are somehow « well-
positioned and privileged places to quick actions
and strategies ». This said, they certainly do not
escape the brutal reality that piles their vulnerability.
Regardless of the lack of legal and institutional
measures and data bases, both agreed that priority
is now in the necessity to support and get supported
by creating a dynamic of solidarity and care between
the actors and reconsidering the value of art in
societies to impact social crisis, build knowledge,
consciousness and well-being in the societies.
March 20, 2020
Culture and art should represent a tool be to used, a
“weapon” that unites us all to fight back COVID-19 and “
instead of social distancing, we should practice physical
distancing and social solidarity”, says Sarah Qudah,
representative of Abdul Hammed Shoman Foundation
from Jordany. Governments and institutions must adopt
initiatives that adequately support the sustainability of
the sector’s ecosystem: support new imaginative ways
of creating a culture of concrete solidarity and people-
to-people interaction that create a sentiment. Similarly,
N. Mabote evokes online based platforms for artists that
are yet to be an advantage for live performers “one other
way as artists to address the pandemic is to continue
entertaining our communities and uplifting their spirits.”
On the long term, according to S. Ben Abderrazak,
rethinking of a model to adopt for the sector with
the implemention of sustainable plans and new
links will help keep, or at least save its remaining
prosperity. Following this statement, Julie Chenot,
representative of the Camargo Foundation in
France puts the accent on the same difficulties
being faced by sectors at different levels of maturity,
and that a connected and solid network between
the fields could bring more strength and support to
the sector once it’s ready to get back on its feet.
As for Ricardo Peach taking part from South Africa,
the priority is also in the real dimension of the issue,
by helping artists physically and not only virtually,
especially in countries where the unemployment rate is
high, lack of budget is considerable and government’s
funds distribution measures grant, what is from their
perspective, the prioritized sectors affected by the crisis.
He adds that a close attention is to be given to new
funding model, for it not to be confused for a living
allowance but rather as a development grant. He
does not believe in the idea that lost gigs have to
be immediately refunded, but instead supports the
idea of reconceptualization (rethinking/redoing)
knowing the evolutive aspect of arts its does not need
an immediate outcome in terms of performance.
CULTURE FUNDING WATCH X RAMBOURG FOUNDATION
International
Virtual Conference
COVID-19 crisis & Emergency Funding Mechanisms :
What action plan for the Cultural and Creative sector ?
When it comes to developing activities on online
platforms, as the rise of support initiatives we are
witnessing now, S. Wrigth raises a legitimate question
on information accessibility in a world of information
overload: “not every artist has an easy and sometimes
obvious access to these medias in terms of logistics but
also content, and it can also be the role of organizations
to facilitate the access to these supports.”
Internationally, and by considering all that has been said
for an urgent solidarity wake-up-call, Marie Le Sourd
representative of On The Move France, suggests to
develop public-private partnerships to engage on and
advocacy platform, that unifies and makes implementation
of processes and models fast and more efficient.
March 20, 2020
To end the workshop, a list of recommandations that
were brought during this session were identified
and compiled into bullet points as such:
• The urgent need to set up mechanisms
between different actors from the grant making field
and coming from different geographic contexts in
order to cover a larger scope of situations, allocation
mechanisms, but also the implementation of
international solidarity policies.
• Find connection between different sectors
and fields to develop system and bring more
knowledge to the discussion.
• Encourage artists to remain responsible for
other people from vulnerable class through
artistic practices and actions.
CULTURE FUNDING WATCH X RAMBOURG FOUNDATION
International
Virtual Conference
COVID-19 crisis & Emergency Funding Mechanisms :
What action plan for the Cultural and Creative sector ?
References and sources  → Social Distancing Festival
Plenary
→ Toni Attard – Venture Culture Malta survey
https://docs.google.com/
document/d/120ihByMwafNGNG_
PB4lMW7MqWIlyP02g1UBsAzE7oYA/edit
→ Online surveys
http://on-the-move.org/news/article/20675/corona-
virus-resources-arts-culture-and-cultural/
→ Artist survey launched by The Americans for the Hearts
https://surveys.americansforthearts.
org/s3/CoronavirusImpactSurvey
→ Hashtag #togetherwecan: An initiative for anyone
who can do virtual training starts to do videos. And we
are contacting the institute if they can support small
amount of payments to support us as our works stopped.
→ An online festival is happening in Malta
https://www.facebook.com/events/447214039416192/
→ In UK
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cD1K7WYZ
wbTyA1gxLp0BRqnwL5oFY75Taizi8bKC3ik/edit#gid=0
→ Initiative from Chicago
of personal solidarity funds
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/
d/1FBEU0cdAGpScU0JrOlYFm8FrY1Bjr0_
HsyW4hWOj74I/htmlview?sle=true&pru=AAAB
cPlyhqE*-P8YNzo26-9p-r1XAXErPg#gid=0
→ #NONFERMIAMOLACULTURA is a streaming cultural
program, promoted by the culture department of the city
of Naples, running every day: Music, theatre, workshops...
→ Nhimbe Trust (Zimbabwe) is launching an online
portal for CCIs early next week. The portal will provide
information resources and technical support to the
CCI ecosystem for the strengthening of COVID-19
preparedness and responses. Information that will
be shared will include links to funding opportunities,
online trainings, tools that can be adopted / adapted
to collect / collate data on specific areas
March 20, 2020
https://www.socialdistancingfestival.com
- But how to monetise and get income
from these virtual offers?
→ piXel, an online pop-up exhibition connecting
people through the arts during COVID-19
https://www.pixel-exhibition.com
→ Debates during FIST festival on youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnXVGG0sOp8
→ HEVA Fund (Kenya) has waived costs of existing
debt facilities for CCIs and is currently creating a
tool to generate analysis on sectors most at risk
to map lost incomes and provide insights on other
key issues that will help prepare a response
→ archivart.co, a plateform that helping artists ti live from
their own art by connecting them to potential buyers. In
the next few days, archivart will launch a new project of
donation to help artist to survive in this difficult time.
→ In celebration of world storytelling day, a group of arab
story tellers are holding a virtual story telling event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/521113878780386/
Workshop1 
→ Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/
u/1/d/1FBEU0cdAGpScU0JrOlYFm8FrY1Bjr0_
HsyW4hWOj74I/htmlview?sle=true&pru=A
AABcPlyhqE*-P8YNzo26-9p-r1XEr1X 
 
→ Some helpful emergency preparation resources
for arts organizations: artsready.org
→ https://performingartsreadiness.org
→ https://en.unesco.org/themes/protecting-our-
heritage-and-fostering-creativity/emergencyfund
→ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PKGodzO2b
Yp1jyF95iVC1sI25ZJaijZjNdnzRMNtN0A/edit?usp=drivesdk
CULTURE FUNDING WATCH X RAMBOURG FOUNDATION

International
Virtual Conference
COVID-19 crisis & Emergency Funding Mechanisms :
What action plan for the Cultural and Creative sector ?

Workshop 2 Workshop3

Initiatives shared by participants Initiatives shared by participants

→ Morgan Brophy → https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PKGodzO2b

https://artistrelieftree.com/ Yp1jyF95iVC1sI25ZJaijZjNdnzRMNtN0A/edit?usp=drivesdk

https://covid19freelanceartistresource.wordpress.com/

→ Julie Trebault
https://artistsatriskconnection.org/story/
covid-19-resources-for-artists

https://pen.org/writers-emergency-fund/

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sante/maladie/
coronavirus/coronavirus-une-aide-d-urgence-de-22-
millions-d-euros-pour-tous-les-secteurs-culturels-
touches-a-annonce-le-ministere_3872909.html

→ Jeremiah
https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/9337908/
coronavirus-resource-guide-music-professionals-help

→ Sepehr Sharifzadeh (about a volunteer based

online festival name Re-connect to bring artists
together for solidarity during hard times)

https://www.facebook.com/Reconnectfest

https://www.facebook.com/
JLohmannPerformanceArt/?ref=br_rs

→ Corina Bucea (a site for celebrating artists and the

work that has been cancelled/delayed/disrupted)
https://www.socialdistancingfestival.com/

→ Preeti Nangal
http://www.museumofmaterialmemory.com/

March 20, 2020